Tips for getting baby to sleep "drowsy but awake"?!?

my LO (little one) has always been a challenging sleeper but has gotten remarkably better in the past 2 months thanks to crawling and physical activity wearing him out. The problem is, he has always nursed or taken a bottle before going to sleep. We have tried putting him down tired, but it only works about 15% of the time. We usually leave him in his crib and after 20 minutes of playing/fussing we put him in his swing, usually only for naps. He's getting too big for the swing though and will try and roll over, or if he does fall asleep will only stay asleep for 30 minutes or so.

Any tips for getting him used to going to sleep on his own? He doesn't take a paci, but he does have special nighttime and naptone rituals so he knows he should be sleeping. He just wants to play, and eventfully cry. It's hard too bc he is just overall prone to getting overtired, so these 30 min + sessions of playing in his crib sometimes make him grumpier.

Comments (9)

Right there with ya. My LO (little one) will NOT take a paci. My boob is his paci. I can't get him to even rock without wanting to nurse. He screams now when he is done eating. He tries scooting off my lap because he knows it's nap time.
At night he wakes up every 2 hours. I need to quit letting him nurse at night but when it's 3am I am a different person. I just do what it takes to get back to sleep.

The only advice I have is to not wait too long to lay him down. Once their are overly tired it won't work.

Yeah - that's never worked for us. It doesn't matter how asleep my Los are, if I try to put trek down they wake up. If DH (dear husband) does it they go right back to sleep. So unless he's on travel, I nurse until he's asleep, I hold him sleeping as long as I feel like (because I work all day and want more time with him) and then DH (dear husband) takes him up and puts him in The crib. He's a freakin baby whisperer. But not me. If I'm home without him baby and I go to bed together and he's in my bed all night. If he starts in the crib he lasts about 1/2 the night there.

Yeah that bullshit phrase doesn't work for us. Pardon my language. I started letting him lay in bed same time everyday when he have sleep cues, even if I had to pick him back up and nurse him. For awhile we were still nursing to sleep for naps and every now and then he'd go to sleep on his own when I put him down without nursing. We are currently at the point where I don't need to nurse him 60% of the time. And he'll fall asleep on his own.i use one of those music players that attach to the crib and he watches/listens to that while falling asleep.

I still nurse him 40% of the time but even then I put him down sometimes while still awake.

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OP you know you're wrong when your thread shows more love for Kanye then you - TAC

They will only want to snuggle and be rocked for so long. I nurse, bath, pjs and then rock and sing to sleep. I already miss that he refuses to nurse to sleep I will rock him as long as he will let me.

For us it was not a quick fix. It has taken us months of sleep training to get him used to things. I only nurse him 1x per night now and I rock him before all naps and bedtime just until he's calm. Sometimes he falls asleep but oh well.

I started by taking away feedings right before nap times...I did this during his 3-2 transition (at this time he was already used to only eating once per night as well). Anyway, so I did that for one nap for a week...then for both naps for the second week and then bedtime for the last week. I found this to be the best way with minimal crying. Of course every once in awhile I will need to BF (breastfeed, or boyfriend) to put him to sleep...especially if he gets OT (off topic) or super fussy or if we've had a busy day.

He's already pretty heavy so rocking him is killing my back but I love the cuddle time. Now I can rock him until he's sorta humming to himself and then put him down. He knows what's up Lol. Also you have to make sure that he's right at the point where he is sleepy enough to nap but not OT. I found this to be the most difficult.

Also the ST board was VERY helpful to me throughout all this time. Try there as well. Good luck!

My lo just decided one night she wants to be put down after nursing and that was it. She's going to be 9 months on the 27. I put her down and she rolls over until she finds a comfortable position, usually her stomach, and falls asleep. She still wakes up 2-3 times a night.

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